Wally Butts
Encyclopedia
James Wallace "Wally" Butts, Jr. (February 7, 1905 – December 17, 1973) was an American football
player and coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head coach at the University of Georgia
from 1939 to 1960, compiling a record of 140–86–9. His Georgia Bulldogs football
teams won two national championships
(1942, 1946) and four Southeastern Conference
titles (1942, 1946, 1948, 1959). Butts was also the athletic director
at Georgia from 1939 to 1963. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame
as a coach in 1997.
where he played college football
under coach Bernie Moore
. He is an alumnus of Pi Kappa Phi
Fraternity.
as an assistant to Joel Hunt
in 1938. Hunt left after a 5–4–1 season to take over at the University of Wyoming
and Butts was elevated to the position of head coach, which he held for 22 seasons through 1960. Butts also served as Georgia's athletic director from 1939 until 1963.
Butts' assistants in his first year as head coach were Bill Hartman
, Howell Hollis
, Quinton Lumpkin, Jules V. Sikes
, Forrest Towns
, and Jennings B. Whitworth
. During his tenure as head coach, Georgia won its first consensus national championship
in 1942 and claimed another national title in 1946. Ralph Jordan
, future head football coach at Auburn University
, joined the Georgia coaching staff in October 1946 as an assistant line coach. Butts was a proponent of the passing game in an era of "three yards and a cloud of dust". He developed innovative, intricate pass routes that were studied by other coaches. He was often called "the little round man" as he was five feet, six inches tall and had a squat body.
Butts coached 1942 Heisman Trophy
winner Frank Sinkwich
and 1946 Maxwell Award
winner Charley Trippi
. The 1942 Georgia team won the Rose Bowl
over UCLA
, finished #2 in the AP Poll
, and was named a national championship by a number of selectors. Butts' teams also won four Southeastern Conference
championships (1942, 1946, 1948 and 1959). As head coach, Butts posted a 140–86–9 record (.615 winning percentage), including a bowl
record of 5–2–1. Johnny Griffith
, a former player and assistant coach to Butts, succeeded him as head coach in 1961.
lawsuit
against the Saturday Evening Post after it ran an article alleging that he and Alabama
head coach Bear Bryant
had conspired to fix games. Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts
, as it ultimately became when it reached the Supreme Court
, was a landmark libel case. The court ruled in his favor in 1967, and the Saturday Evening Post was ordered to pay $3.06 million to him in damages, an amount which was later reduced on appeal to $460,000. This settlement was seen as a contributing factor in the demise of the venerable Saturday Evening Post two years later. Both Butts and Bryant had sued for $10 million each. Bryant settled for $300,000.
Butts was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
in 1966 and in the College Football Hall of Fame
in 1997.
Butts died of a heart attack
after returning from a walk in 1973. He was buried in Oconee Hill Cemetery
in Athens, Georgia
.
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
player and coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head coach at the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
from 1939 to 1960, compiling a record of 140–86–9. His Georgia Bulldogs football
Georgia Bulldogs football
The Georgia Bulldogs football team represents the University of Georgia in football. The Bulldogs are a member of the Southeastern Conference and are frequently a top-25 team. The University of Georgia has had a football team since 1892 and has an all-time record of 738–398–54...
teams won two national championships
NCAA Division I FBS National Football Championship
A college football national championship in the highest level of collegiate play in the United States, currently the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , is a designation awarded annually by various third-party organizations to their selection of the best...
(1942, 1946) and four Southeastern Conference
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...
titles (1942, 1946, 1948, 1959). Butts was also the athletic director
Athletic director
An athletic director is an administrator at many American colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and related staff involved in intercollegiate or interscholastic athletic programs...
at Georgia from 1939 to 1963. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...
as a coach in 1997.
Playing career
Butts was a 1929 graduate of Mercer UniversityMercer University
Mercer University is an independent, private, coeducational university with a Baptist heritage located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Mercer is the only university of its size in the United States that offers programs in eleven diversified fields of study: liberal arts, business, education, music,...
where he played college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
under coach Bernie Moore
Bernie Moore
-External links:...
. He is an alumnus of Pi Kappa Phi
Pi Kappa Phi
Pi Kappa Phi is an American social fraternity. It was founded by Andrew Alexander Kroeg, Jr., Lawrence Harry Mixson, and Simon Fogarty, Jr. on December 10, 1904 at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina...
Fraternity.
Coaching career
Butts came to the University of GeorgiaUniversity of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
as an assistant to Joel Hunt
Joel Hunt
Oliver Joel "Lil' Joel" Hunt was American football and baseball player and coach of football. He played college football at Texas A&M University from 1925 to 1927 and served as the head football coach at the University of Georgia in 1938 and the University of Wyoming in 1939...
in 1938. Hunt left after a 5–4–1 season to take over at the University of Wyoming
University of Wyoming
The University of Wyoming is a land-grant university located in Laramie, Wyoming, situated on Wyoming's high Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7,200 feet , between the Laramie and Snowy Range mountains. It is known as UW to people close to the university...
and Butts was elevated to the position of head coach, which he held for 22 seasons through 1960. Butts also served as Georgia's athletic director from 1939 until 1963.
Butts' assistants in his first year as head coach were Bill Hartman
Bill Hartman
William Coleman "Bill" Hartman, Jr. was an American football running back in the National Football League for the Washington Redskins before World War II. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 1937 with a B.S., where he was a member of the Chi Phi Fraternity...
, Howell Hollis
Howell Hollis
Howell T. Hollis was an American college football player, coach and athletic director, best known as the men's golf head coach for the University of Georgia from 1946 – 1970....
, Quinton Lumpkin, Jules V. Sikes
Jules V. Sikes
-External links:*...
, Forrest Towns
Forrest Towns
Forrest Grady "Spec" Towns was an American track and field athlete. He was the 1936 Olympic champion in the 110 m hurdles, and broke the World Record in that event three times....
, and Jennings B. Whitworth
Jennings B. Whitworth
-Additional sources:* Stoddard, Tom, Turnaround, 1996, The Black Belt Press, ISBN 1-881320-70-7* Hooper, Matt "". Birmingham Weekly-External links:...
. During his tenure as head coach, Georgia won its first consensus national championship
NCAA Division I FBS National Football Championship
A college football national championship in the highest level of collegiate play in the United States, currently the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , is a designation awarded annually by various third-party organizations to their selection of the best...
in 1942 and claimed another national title in 1946. Ralph Jordan
Ralph Jordan
James Ralph "Shug" Jordan was an American football, basketball, and baseball player and coach of football and basketball. He served as the head football coach at Auburn from 1951 to 1975, where he compiled a record of 176–83–6. He is the winningest coach in Auburn Tigers football...
, future head football coach at Auburn University
Auburn University
Auburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts...
, joined the Georgia coaching staff in October 1946 as an assistant line coach. Butts was a proponent of the passing game in an era of "three yards and a cloud of dust". He developed innovative, intricate pass routes that were studied by other coaches. He was often called "the little round man" as he was five feet, six inches tall and had a squat body.
Butts coached 1942 Heisman Trophy
Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Memorial Trophy Award , is awarded annually to the player deemed the most outstanding player in collegiate football. It was created in 1935 as the Downtown Athletic Club trophy and renamed in 1936 following the death of the Club's athletic director, John Heisman The Heisman Memorial...
winner Frank Sinkwich
Frank Sinkwich
Frank Francis Sinkwich Sr. won the 1942 Heisman Trophy as a player for the University of Georgia, making him the first recipient from the Southeastern Conference. In the course of a brief but celebrated career in professional football, Sinkwich was selected for the National Football League Most...
and 1946 Maxwell Award
Maxwell Award
The Maxwell Award is presented annually to the collegiate American football player judged by a panel of sportscasters, sportswriters, and National Collegiate Athletic Association head coaches and the membership of the Maxwell Football Club to be the best football player in the United States. The...
winner Charley Trippi
Charley Trippi
Charles Louis Trippi is a former professional American football player for the Chicago Cardinals. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1968.Mr. Trippi currently resides in Athens, Georgia...
. The 1942 Georgia team won the Rose Bowl
1943 Rose Bowl
The 1943 Rose Bowl game, played on January 1, 1943 was the 29th Rose Bowl game. The University of Georgia Bulldogs defeated the UCLA Bruins 9-0. The game returned to the Rose Bowl stadium after being played at Duke Stadium the year before...
over UCLA
UCLA Bruins Football
The UCLA Bruins football program represents the University of California, Los Angeles in college football as members of the Pacific-12 Conference at the NCAA Division I FBS level. The Bruins have enjoyed several periods of success in their history, having been ranked in the top ten of the AP Poll...
, finished #2 in the AP Poll
AP Poll
The Associated Press College Poll refers to weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling sportswriters across the nation...
, and was named a national championship by a number of selectors. Butts' teams also won four Southeastern Conference
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...
championships (1942, 1946, 1948 and 1959). As head coach, Butts posted a 140–86–9 record (.615 winning percentage), including a bowl
Bowl game
In North America, a bowl game is commonly considered to refer to one of a number of post-season college football games. Prior to 2002, bowl game statistics were not included in players' career totals and the games were mostly considered to be exhibition games involving a payout to participating...
record of 5–2–1. Johnny Griffith
Johnny Griffith (coach)
Johnny Griffith was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at South Georgia College and the University of Georgia .-Early life and playing career:...
, a former player and assistant coach to Butts, succeeded him as head coach in 1961.
Later life and honors
In the 1960s, Butts filed a libelSlander and libel
Defamation—also called calumny, vilification, traducement, slander , and libel —is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image...
lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
against the Saturday Evening Post after it ran an article alleging that he and Alabama
Alabama Crimson Tide football
|TeamName = Alabama football |Image = Alabama Crimson Tide Logo.svg |ImageSize = 110 |Helmet = Alabama Football.png |ImageSize2 = 150 |CurrentSeason = 2011 Alabama Crimson Tide football team...
head coach Bear Bryant
Bear Bryant
Paul William "Bear" Bryant was an American college football player and coach. He was best known as the longtime head coach of the University of Alabama football team. During his 25-year tenure as Alabama's head coach, he amassed six national championships and thirteen conference championships...
had conspired to fix games. Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts
Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts
Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 130 , was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States established the standard of First Amendment protection against defamation claims brought by private individuals....
, as it ultimately became when it reached the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
, was a landmark libel case. The court ruled in his favor in 1967, and the Saturday Evening Post was ordered to pay $3.06 million to him in damages, an amount which was later reduced on appeal to $460,000. This settlement was seen as a contributing factor in the demise of the venerable Saturday Evening Post two years later. Both Butts and Bryant had sued for $10 million each. Bryant settled for $300,000.
Butts was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame is located in Macon, Georgia. It is the largest state sports hall of fame in America at .-Exhibitions:The Hall of Fame houses over of exhibit space broken down into sections including Hall of Fame Inductees, High School, collegiate sports, Olympic, Paralympic,...
in 1966 and in the College Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame
The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. Located in South Bend, Indiana, it is connected to a convention center and situated in the city's renovated downtown district, two miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. It is slated to move...
in 1997.
Butts died of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
after returning from a walk in 1973. He was buried in Oconee Hill Cemetery
Oconee Hill Cemetery
Oconee Hill Cemetery is an American cemetery in Athens, Georgia. The cemetery opened in 1856 and is located just off the University of Georgia's campus....
in Athens, Georgia
Athens, Georgia
Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city–county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city...
.